Blog - Proverbs 2:18

If you like this blog, then you will like Get Wisdom, Get Understanding which is Pastor Wagner's commentary on Proverbs chapter 1 which is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle. Find out more here. For all the blogs in this series, click here: Proverbs Commentary. Proverbs 2:18 "For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead." (Pro 2:18)

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An encounter with a strange woman may be deadly. Her house inclineth unto death. Her house is a place where men go to lose their souls and possibly their lives as well. A man that enters therein destroys his own soul.

Pro 6:32-33 - But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. 33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

Not only is his soul in jeopardy; if the whore's husband finds him, his very life may be at risk, for "jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. 35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts" (Pro 6:34-35). If the adulterer escapes the revenge of the strange woman's husband, he will not escape the retribution of the LORD, for "vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Rom 12:19); as the scripture says: "whoremongers and adulterers God will judge" (Heb 13:4). The judgment of God on a man who commits the "heinous crime" (Job 31:11) of adultery might come suddenly, as did the death of Ananias and Sapphira who likewise committed a wicked sin against the LORD (Act 5:1-10), or it may come later at the time of God's choosing, for "some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after" (1Ti 5:24). The man who is tempted to give in to the allure of the strange woman better remember that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb 10:31). The LORD's judgment for such an odious sin may well be the sexually transmitted disease he received from his lover, which he will have to suffer with and regret for the rest of his life.

Pro 5:11-13 - And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

If the whoremonger escapes with his life and health, he is still not off the hook, for the LORD has yet more ways of chastising him, such as taking from him his house, wealth, and retirement, destroying him financially through the courts for his dreadful sin.

Pro 5:8-10 - Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: 10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
Pro 6:24-26 - To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. 25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. 26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
Job 31:9-12 - If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; 10 Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. 11 For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. 12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

And her paths unto the dead. Here we find the identification of the victims of the strange woman: the dead. She primarily seeks for those who have no moral compass nor godly principles that guide their lives, looking not for those who are "dead to sin" (Rom 6:2), but for those who are yet "dead in sins" (Eph 2:5) and are only concerned with "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph 2:3). Such reprobates are easy targets for the adulteress because they have not a regenerate spirit within them warring against the flesh and its lusts (Gal 5:17). Furthermore, they don't have God in their corner protecting them from her, for "the mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein" (Pro 22:14). Desirous of a challenge, the adulteress not only goes after spiritually dead sinners who offer little resistance, but she also "will hunt for the precious life" (Pro 6:26). She seeks the "young man void of understanding" (Pro 7:7), who, when properly enticed, will go "after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird that hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life" (Pro 7:22-23). Thus the reason that Solomon wrote this warning to his son and exhorted him to receive his words, incline his ear unto wisdom, cry after knowledge, and seek it as silver so that he might understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge and wisdom of God (Pro 2:1-6), which would "deliver [him] from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words" (Pro 2:16), for "her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead" (Pro 2:18).

Pro 7:24-27 - Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. 25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. 26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. 27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

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